SAN JOSE, Calif. — It’s a vicious cycle and one of the main reasons why the Edmonton Oilers missed the playoffs in 11 of the last 12 years.

Aside from some of the obvious holes in their roster, the Oilers’ motivation has been a lingering issue during this long and winding rebuild.

You can set you watch by this team.

They win a game or two and start looking like they are on their way to better days.

Then, just as everyone starts singing their praises, they get complacent and start looking like a team that might never win again.

Then, when everyone jumps on them for a brutal effort, they respond with a performance worthy of a playoff team.

The first three games of this Pacific Division road trip are a perfect microcosm of the last 12 years. After being dumped all over because they lost five in a row at home, they open the trip with a hard-fought win in Arizona.

Great game, guys! Big character win.

Three days later they mail it in in a 4-0, 16-shot loss in Los Angeles.

You suck!

One night later they romp to a 4-0 victory in Anaheim.

All teams go through ups and downs during the course of a season, and the weaknesses in Edmonton’s roster can’t be ignored, but the mood swings on this team would take up three chapters in a psychology text book.

“It’s frustrating to have one good game and fall back down again,” said Leon Draisaitl. “That’s something we have to fix.”

Head coach Ken Hitchcock has only seen it for 22 games and he is already flabbergasted how a team that can be so gritty and resilient when it wants to be can be so flat and lifeless a day or two later.

Seeing his team go through the motions in such an important game in Los Angeles (the Oilers were four points out of a playoff spot) was enough to make the normally upbeat and positive Hitchcock finally erupt.

He roasted the players for their lack of effort and commitment in his brief but pointed post-game media scrum, saying that too often it takes an embarrassing defeat to get them properly motivated, and that once they meet with just the slightest measure of success they get complacent again.

The players know he’s right and addressed the issue before the win in Anaheim.

“Everyone felt like Saturday was a rock bottom for us,” said centre Kyle Brodziak. “We had enough time to talk about it and try and get it behind us.

“To be able to come out with a response like we did against Anaheim was a good feeling. It’s something everyone should be proud of.”

Zack Kassian says the swings are certainly something they need to work on. But confidence and consistency go hand in hand and finding both of them can sometimes turn into a catch-22.

“Like Hitch said, when things aren’t going right for us in games we seem to kind of back off, get quiet and not work through things,” said Kassian. “If we get down by a goal or two, we don’t tend to work through things with second and third efforts.

“But when things are going good, they go good. We just need to find a way that when things aren’t going well for us to grind through and play simple hockey and wait for our bounces.”

What will we see against San Jose? You don’t know with this team and that’s the problem.

Alex Chiasson, who spent last season on a Stanley Cup champion in Washington, is never one to mince words when it comes to the state of the union. He says the fluctuation can be remedied by just sharpening their focus — being ready before the puck is even dropped is how winning teams make their money.

“These game are so important down the stretch, we have to find a way to make sure we’re prepared,” he said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with effort, it’s just preparation.

“When you’re playing against a team in your division, those are big points. Every guy has to take better pride in what they do on the ice, myself included.”

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